Teymuraz Avaliani

Teymuraz Georgiyevich Avaliani (; 18 September 1932 – 25 October 2021) was a Soviet and Russian politician. In 1990 he unsuccessfully challenged Mikhail Gorbachev's position as General Secretary at the 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Early life Teymuraz Georgiyevich Avaliani was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union on 18 September 1932. He grew up in Leningrad and survived the Siege of Leningrad during the Second World War. In 1948 he graduated from a vocational school in Shcherbakov (now Rybinsk) in the Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia. He later graduated from the All-Union Correspondence Financial and Economic Institute. He worked for a time at a ship repair plant in Kaliningrad, but was sent to a camp by a decree from Josef Stalin. After completing military service, he moved to Kiselyovsk in Siberia, where he lived for 44 years.

Beginning in August 1956, he worked at the Vakhrushev mine in the Kuznetsk Coal Basin ("Kuzbass") for 17 years as a miner, underground electrician, and as deputy head of the mine. From 1973 to 1984 he was General Director of the Kuzbassobuv production association. In 1984 he became Chief Miner of the All-Union Production Association Oblkemerougol, and from 1984 to 1990 he was Deputy Director of the Directorate for Capital Construction of the Kiselevskugol production association. From 17 July to 24 October 1989, he headed the Kuzbass Miners' Strike Committee. He was the Chairman of the Council of Workers' Committees of Kuzbass from 1 August 1989 to 26 January 1990, when he was forced to resign due to disagreements with the council.

Political career In 1986, Avaliani sent a letter to the Politburo of the Communist Party's Central Committee on the eve of the party's 27th Congress, in which he criticized Leonid Brezhnev's leadership and called for his resignation, arguing that Brezhnev would be incapable of effectively responding to a crisis.

In 1989 Avaliani was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union as the Deputy for Belovsky electoral district No. 193 in the Kemerovo Oblast of Russia. He was a member of the Inter-regional Deputies Group, and later the Soyuz faction which was critical of Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika reforms. At the 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he unsuccessfully challenged Gorbachev to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party, coming in second place with 501 votes in his favour and 4020 opposing, compared to Gorbachev's 3411 to 1116 votes.

Avaliani supported Vadim Bakatin's candidacy during the 1991 Russian presidential election.

In December 1996, Avaliani and other like-minded party members signed a statement criticizing CPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov, but shortly before the start of the party plenum all of Avaliani's supporters withdrew their signatures, and he read the statement alone. In April 1998 Avaliani was dismissed as first secretary of the regional committee and expelled from the CPRF, but rejoined shortly after and was elected first secretary of the Kemerovo Regional Committee of the CPRF in February 1999.

In 2000, Avaliani unsuccessfully ran for election to the State Duma in Saint Petersburg.

Personal life and death

Teymuraz Avaliani died in Moscow, Russia on 25 October 2021, aged 89. He is buried in Khimki Cemetery. He was married with two children; a son and a daughter.